Electoral Commission gave extra 6,000 votes to my rival - FDC lady

Kampala

The Electoral Commission (EC) gave an extra 6,000 votes to the ruling National Resistance Movement candidate for Rubaga Division, the incoming chairperson, Ms Joyce Ssebuggwawo, has said.

Addressing journalists at Christ the King Church in Kampala yesterday, Ms Ssebuggwawo said the falsification of results was one of the ways by which the EC rigged for the ruling party candidates. She added that this was proof of what happened in the presidential elections.

In an effort to check the EC’s rigging, Ms Ssebugwawo said she set up her own tally centre during last week’s local polls, where she collected all results from the 334 polling stations in the constituency.

“These results differ greatly from those declared by the Kampala Returning officer (Molly Mutazindwa) where the NRM candidate, Mr Sulaymani Sendi, was added 6,000 votes; either deliberately or by mistake is for it (EC) to say,” Ms Ssebuggwawo said. “We demand an immediate clarification on this.”

According to her tally, Ms Ssebuggwawo scored 20,774 votes (43.6%) as opposed to Sendi’s 11,822 votes (24.8%) but Ms Mutazindwa read out 23,740 votes for Ms Ssebugwawo and 17,822 for her rial.

She said she thought the act could have been deliberate to improve Mr Sendi’s scores. But the EC spokesperson, Mr Willy Ochola, said it was not proper that they were hearing the complaint from the press. “Let them put it in writing and we shall respond from an informed point,” Mr Ochola said.

The EC has been accused of incompetence with the opposition rejecting the presidential election results in which incumbent President Museveni scored 68.3 per cent and his nearest challenger Kizza Besigye, the Inter Party Cooperation candidate, claimed 26 per cent.

Denied allegations
Ms Ssebuggwawo, meanwhile, denied allegations by the Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, that she is one of the politicians with unruly youth groups known for violence and terror. “I challenge the IGP to prove this allegation. Kiboko squads are owned, housed and commanded by the police,” she said. She added that she was a law abiding citizen with no criminal record.

Ms Ssebuggwawo took the opportunity criticised The New Vision newspaper which reported her as opposing public demonstrations called by opposition leaders in light of the conduct of the recent general elections. The paper, quoting a government “Media Centre” statement reported her as denouncing the call to demonstrations. But Ms Ssebuggwawo said demonstrations were a constitutional right as long as people had a just cause to express themselves in that manner in a peaceful way.